Of the many challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama, the crisis in US healthcare is surely among the top.

Advances in the science and technologies emerging from the Human Genome Project and research on human genome variation have propelled biomedical research to the frontiers of Personalized Medicine.

Tailoring medical care to fit the genotype of an individual raises major ethical, legal, and social implications for US healthcare policy. Consequently, the need to critically examine the impact of genomic science on healthcare practice and policy is paramount in the mission of the NHGC especially as it relates to health disparities.

This Symposium is a direct response to the President-elect s solicitation for increased discussions on issues that affect health policy, and will introduce the Genomics and Personalized Medicine Act, a bill that he introduced to Congress in 2006 and 2007 and is now being reintroduced to the current 110th Congress by Representative Patrick Kennedy.

A discussion on this bill is included in the program and the Symposium will also feature speakers from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, as well as internationally renowned scholar Dr. F.I.D. Konotey Ahulu, one of Ghana s leading scientists (now living in the UK), and one of the world s leading experts in sickle-cell anemia and recipients of several awards including the Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation Award for outstanding (other recipients included Roland B Scott and Linus Pauling (Nobel Prize Winner), among others.